CONSUMER GOODS 



143 



seed produced in and near Panajachel sells for a 

 higher price in Guatemala City than locally. In 

 the spring of 1937 I bought at $3 and sold at a 

 profit within the hour to Indians from Mixco who 

 had come for the purpose. In Guatemala City 

 it brought 4 or 5 dollars. The average price of 

 seed in Panajachel in 1936 may be taken as $2.50 

 a pound. 



Table 53. — Onion prices 



' Not "normal" in the technical sense — just the most usual. 



The price of garUc varies greatly, depending on 

 the season and year; but it can be stored for a 

 better price. It is about the same in Panajachel, 

 Solola, and Tecpan; but only in Solola are the 

 small ones sold (by the measure) in quantities, 

 and to Tecpkn whole loads of garlic are not taken. 

 Guatemala City records (as reported in El Impar- 

 cial, 1937) give prices of potatoes and sweet 

 cassava by the piece rather than the pound. In 

 Panajachel (where they are produced and where 

 they are doubtless cheaper) they average 1 cent 

 and IK cents a pound, respectively. Green beans 

 are sold by very variable measures. If as they 

 calculate, producers get from 20 to 30 cents for a 

 large basketful which I judge weighs some 20 

 poimds, the price varies from a cent to a cent and 

 a half a pound, as compared with the 1937 Guate- 

 mala City price of from 4 to 10 cents. Green 

 beans are available in Panajachel only in spring, 

 when garden beans are harvested, and late summer, 

 when cornfield beans from other towns come in; 

 hence the variation in price is not great. Toma- 

 toes in season (February, March) are as low as 

 K cent a pound and out of season (as in September) 

 as high as 14 cents a pound. Since the Indians 

 do not buy such things as tomatoes and potatoes 

 when they are high, the average prices may be 

 fixed lower than the mean of the extremes. Husk- 



cherries are in season when tomatoes are not; 

 thus the two (used alternatively in cooking) are 

 not in competition, and although tomatoes may 

 be preferred, the average price of huskcherries is 

 actually higher. 



FRUIT 



Fruit prices vary most with the seasons. In 

 April and May, oranges, for example, sell for as 

 much as K cent, yet in November 1937, large ones 

 were 15 for 1 cent in the Panajachel market. 

 Likewise, Spanish plums are normally high at 10 

 to 15 for 1 cent and low at 20 to 35, but in Novem- 

 ber of 1937, they sold for as httle as 60 for 1 cent. 

 The seasons of high and low prices differ for 

 different fruits. Thus peaches, mangos, passion- 

 flower fruit, membrillos, and pitahayas are most 

 plentiful in July and August; apples and pears 

 from August to October; home-grown bananas in 

 October and November; limas from October to 

 January; oranges and Spanish plums from Novem- 

 ber to January; lowland bananas from January 

 to April; white sapodillas from February to April; 

 and avocados and cross-sapodillas from February 

 to May. 



Fruit is frequently bought and sold by the tree; 

 although the price is lower, estimates of the 

 number of fruit are so exact that the labor of har- 

 vesting and selling accounts for the difference. 

 Thus, when a Panajacheleno who had failed to sell 

 the harvest of a Spanish plum tree because the 

 buyer would not come near the $3 he asked finally 

 picked and sold the fruit in small quantities locally 

 and in Sololi, he realized just about the $3 he 

 had required. 



DOMESTIC PRODUCTION 

 KINDS OF HOUSES 



Each of the 157 households occupies at least 

 1 house; a few have compounds of as many as 4 

 or 5 houses and 1 household has 7 and another 8 

 houses. In aU but 35 families, who lived in bor- 

 rowed '^* houses or houses they had built on 

 borrowed land, the houses (and land) were owned, 

 or destined to be inherited, by their occupants. 

 In 1936, 328 houses were occupied by the 146 

 families for which I have data on the point.'* 

 Fifty-two of the 146 famihes occupied 1 house 



>" The natives use this term or frequently "recomendado" which Is other- 

 wise used to refer to articles stored or checked. 



"» Based on a careful " personal examination" survey In 1937, begun by 8r. 

 Rosales and me, and finished by him alone. Dealing as It does with observ- 

 able phenomena, the data are highly reliable. 



